Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players
MI batters outdo KKR as Venkatesh Iyer’s ton goes in vain
Suryakumar Yadav, Mumbai Indians’ stand-in skipper, found form with 43 and opener Ishan Kishan hit 58 to overhaul KKR’s 185/6 for a five-wicket win at home.
Mumbai Indians’ first win of this IPL in the previous game, off the last ball, wasn’t convincing. But their five-wicket victory against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday certainly was. The result lifted the five-time champions to eighth in the points table and reassured them that when their famed batting line-up lives up to reputation, they can be imposing.
Chasing 186, MI got home with 14 balls to spare with Australian big-hitter Tim David (24*) at the crease. MI knew they had to break KKR’s spin attack if they were to win. They had a head-start by going after the pacers and then made light of the threat the 12 possible overs of spin could pose (In the end, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy and Suyash Sharma together bowled 11 overs). Skipper Rohit Sharma’s absence in the first half (when KKR batted) due to a stomach bug didn’t hurt as he scored 20 as Impact Player.
No bowler had got Sharma out more often (seven times) than Sunil Narine. MI were aware that KKR’s spinners could exploit the dry pitch just as their spinners had managed to. After watching Venkatesh Iyer hit nine sixes in his innings (104 – 51b, 6x4, 9x6), MI openers Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma went all out in attack against the KKR fast bowlers.
They took 35 runs in the first three overs shared by Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur. There was a hint of swing but the bowlers had little control and Kishan, in particular, made them pay. While Kishan (58 – 25b, 5x4, 5x6) was scoring boundaries at will by hitting through the line, Sharma’s maximum over extra-cover brought alive the crowd, which included 19,000 girls of the home franchise’s Education and Sports for all (ESA) initiative.
As expected, Narine was introduced early and Sharma met the challenge head on. His first ball was lifted over covers. Then, Kishan twice hit Narine over the mid-wicket fence. The Trinidadian was struggling to find the right length and ended up conceding 22 runs in three overs. Those were early signs that it wasn’t looking like a KKR spin day. After the powerplay, MI had raced to 72 for the loss of Sharma’s wicket.
SURYA REGAINS FORM
Exit Sharma, enter stand-in skipper Suryakumar Yadav. His run of poor scores was a big issue in MI’s campaign. With four golden ducks in his last six innings, even the national team had reasons to worry. Yadav addressed those concerns with an emphatic performance.
So what if this was T20 cricket, and he had ruled the format last year. Yadav decided to give himself some time, a luxury he could afford due to the early blitz of Sharma (20 - 13b) and Kishan. After the first 13 balls he faced, Yadav was on 14.
In the fifth ball of the 11th over, Lockie Ferguson dug one short. Yadav changed gears. He brought out the pick-up shot to send the ball sailing over fine-leg. The next delivery was sent over the mid-wicket boundary with the same ferocity with which Ferguson delivered it. Yadav was on 26 off 15 balls. In the 13th over, Yadav whipped Andre Russell for six over square leg and it appeared normal service had resumed. He was ultimately dismissed for 43 (25b, 4x4,3x6) but by then the team was cruising towards a win.
For KKR, Iyer batted like a one-man army, for which he was awarded the Player-of-the-Match despite being on the losing side. His strikerate read 203.92. No other batter barring Russell (21* - 11b, 3x4,1x6) caused any impact. MI spinners Piyush Chawla and Hrithik Shokeen returned combined figures of 8-0-53-3.
